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Buddy read with the Unapologetic Romance Readers group!



**Warning: Spoilers!**



I'd been lusting after this book for a while, partly because of that beautiful cover, and partly because it's a romance between an Amazon and an Atlantean. Ummmm, shut up and take my money? Also, that man on the cover is not wearing anything under that robe, so there's lots of sexy naked thigh action (even though his junk appears to have been photoshopped away for the sake of propriety, rather akin to the "missing nipple" phenomenon you see on many an erotica cover).



Sadly, the book itself did not live up to that glorious cover. Which was upsetting because the premise and the intro itself were quite good. I d Thalassa and the Amazons. Who doesn't want to see a bunch of body positive, warrior women having sex and slaying misogynists? It's basically a blood-thirstier version of those Smash the Patriarchy necklaces on Etsy. Except instead of a hammer, they use a bipennis (and no, that's not what you think it is. This is, though! You're welcome. ;D)



The problem comes in the form of the hero, King "I'm a nice guy, I swear" Dorian, of the mer-people. Dorian is a nice guy. He will tell you this constantly. His people tell his victim, Thalassa, this constantly. But Dorian is not a nice guy. He kidnaps Thalassa from her people, turns her into a mer-person without her consent by magic, threatens her with the Sea Spell which will erase all her memories of her past life and render her docile, and repeatedly threatens her with rape.



I couldn't quite get over the body modification. I'm still kind of hung up on that. I mean, he gives her gills & changes her physiology by sticking her with a needle repeatedly. That's some serious Dr. Moreau shit right there. The concept of the Sea Spell was also disturbing, because apparently this is standard process for abducted brides among the mer-people and Dorian gets into serious trouble with the elders for not using it. I know we're supposed to applaud him for not doing this, because he loves her the way she is, but that, to me, is tantamount to clapping some bro-dude on the back and saying, "Good job for not raping that unconscious woman! Great self-control, dude!" Why someone should be applauded for not taking away someone's memory and free will is highly questionable to me because no decent person should do this, period. You shouldn't be rewarded for doing what any decent hero would do. Which begs the question: is Dorian a hero? He's an alpha who dreams of being a beta, but secretly also wants to be a gamma. I almost feel the author would have been better off writing him in the style of a classic bodice ripper "hero": that is, someone completely without scruple, who does what he pleases, when he pleases, and God help you if you get in the way of that Master Plan. That I think would have been a better characterization for a needle-happy despot who thinks you need to be cruel to be kind.



ACROSS A WINE-DARK SEA also falls into a trope trap that I really don't ...the fated to be mated trope. I go out of my way to avoid books with this trope, because I have yet to see one that does it in a way that doesn't come across as apologist & rapey.



At first, I found myself skimming the Thalassa/Dorian chapters - because Thalassa loses her awesomeness quickly, becoming a pouting, foot-stomping, "No, I won't eat my food, I'm going to starve!" type heroine - and reading the passages about the Amazons, because they were great. Until I noticed another disturbing trend...that all of the Amazon subplots inevitably resulted in men arriving to Amazonia who wanted to rape them. The book opens up with pirates trying to capture them and sell them as sex slaves, and then there's the Greeks, led by Heracles and Theseus, who come to the island to steal Hippolyte's golden girdle and end up having a happy sex orgy until one jealous gay guy (and of course, he has to be gay) decides to commit murder out of jealousy and love for Heracles, thereby inciting a riot that leads to a bunch of Amazons being kidnapped as sex slaves/collateral. The ending cinched my dis for this book. Bryan kills off some of the characters I did , seemingly for shock value, and, of course, Thalassa and Dorian get their HEA.



I am glad I read this book, because it was different and now I know how I feel about it instead of lusting after that gorgeous cover and fantasizing about what might be. I read the synopses for the sequels, and I think that I might be willing to give this author another chance, because they look standalones and book two is an interracial romance between a mer-woman and a Chinese man and book three is a contemporary paranormal between a female scholar and a mer-man. Depending on how that goes down, it might be a better premise for this book - especially considering that this was a debut effort, and the author would have had some time to better hone her craft. But I did not WINE-DARK SEA at all. I desperately wanted to - the writing was beautiful at times and she wrote some kick-ass fight scenes (apparently she's into martial arts - it shows) - but I didn't.



P.S. The whole time I was reading this, I kept humming this song.



1 star!90s-bodice-ripper-experience fantasy-romance historical-romance ...more55 s Karlyflower *The Vampire Ninja, Luminescent Monster & Wendigo Nerd Goddess of Canada (according to The Hulk)*514 370

2 Bound-for-destruction Stars

I will argue, until my dying breath, that Across the Wine-Dark Sea has no business being called a romance. My fellow Romaniacs over at Unapologetic Romance Readers have discussed ad nauseam in their the reasons why the love arch in this story is a disaster. How detrimental and horrifying it is to have Dorian as a “hero”.

For the purposes of my review I will be staying, for the most part, away from Thalassa and Dorian’s love story. Frankly, I think choosing this couple as the focal of this novel was a foolish decision on Bryan's part. This story has so much potential for greatness but it suffered from romanticizing a man whose actions are so abhorrent and opposite to his claims of equality and love.

Instead I am going to talk about what I think the story should have been about. At the core of this novel is a war of beliefs. The clash of a patriotic society (represented here by the Greeks) and a matristic society (represented by the Amazons) is bound for chaos and destruction. Anytime you have two such extreme and opposing belief systems there is a danger of war. And even though in this case the war proper was brought about by jealousy and conniving I believe that outcome was foretold when you put these two groups together in a single place. Tempers run high in extremist societies even without adding accelerants to the smoldering embers of the fire. I will certainly agree that murder is a poor way to bring about peace, and in this case was definitely not meant to, but even in a calm state these two groups would never have found a lasting peace, their beliefs differ on too extreme of a scale. War was all but inevitable.

While nauseating to read about I found the thoughts and prejudices expressed here very fascinating. I truly wish that Bryan had chosen to focus on the bloodlust and revenge vein of this story, which I think is the more powerful message here. Both the Amazons and the Greeks were warriors, uncompromising in their beliefs, who believed with absolute finality that they were right and the other sect was wrong.



Far more interesting, and the love arch I truly wish had been told at the forefront, is the story of Theseus and Aloipe. The hopelessness, the devastation of giving your life for a cause (the safety of your kinswomen and the end of a war) only to be murdered by your own sister because she could not fathom that the rigid customs of her life might be imperfect. Gah, that is the stuff I crave in the depths of my flawed vampiric heart. The ‘Tristan & Isolde’s, the ‘Romeo & Juliet’s. The destined for destruction couples that tear every element of your heart apart with the sheer enormity of what loving someone in that circumstance would do to your very soul. What it would feel to fall for someone who is so entirely and completely your opposite that it is all but impossible to survive that love. That shit is my catnip.

All of this is what I wish the focus of this novel was, however it isn’t. While those elements are all there they take a backseat to a “love story” that is repellant and grotesque to me. For that reason, despite truly enjoying the fight scenes and warrior tactics of this novel, I simply cannot give it more than a two.


PRE-REVIEW-----------------------------------

This is entirely Heatherdoll & Future-Gurl's fault.

If this doesn't have fins...



While I have yet to finish this train-wreck, I will lead you to this rant of mine about dub-con which will explain a small part of why I am loathing this story and it's love interest. *grumbles*buddy-reads you-call-this-romance36 s Dino-Jess ? The Book Eating Dinosaur ?659 19

Mer-love and I don't get along very well. This genre gets one more shot and then it's going to be on my shitlist.

This book was at least a step up from THAT PIECE OF SHIT we read earlier this year, because at least the mer-people had gills in this! But still no tails. WHAT THE FUCK AUTHORS? Mer-people should have tails. Because that's what a mer-person is. A PERSON WITH A TAIL.

And I quote dictionary.com :

Merman:
"a male marine creature, having the head, torso, and arms of a man and the tail of a fish."

To be completely honest I wanted to DNF this after the dub-con scene in chapter 15. I didn't pick this up for more than two weeks after reading that chapter. And I skimmed the last half of the book just to get the main elements of the story, because I didn't give a shit anymore.

This is not a love story. It's a case-study in misogyny. Everyone wants to rape and pillage the Amazon women. Are you a woman in this story? Then guard your loins, the males want to subjugate you, rape you and impregnate you. NO WOMAN IS SAFE.

The best part of this book was the stickers in the middle and the pull out thingy that I am still emailing the publishing house about. It says I can get a free makeup case and six free books if I send them in the piece of paper. Even though it's more than 15 years old, I'm still holding out hope that if I harass them enough, I might actually get something out of them for spending my hard earned money on this piece of crap.

With all my rage, this was well written, well researched and as my other buddy readers have noted, the action sequences were pretty amazing. But I did find the constant change of narrative voice incredibly jarring.

I will not be reading further in this series. But I do hope to get my free makeup case and six free books. *watch this space*

2 you-aren't-a-slave-but-you-can't-leave Stars

Thanks for the buddy read you awesome peeps over at Unapologetic Romance Readers!buddy-read what-am-i-thinking23 s Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~Author 20 books531

I don't think raging at a book more than 20 years old will do much good, but it probably won't hurt either. So here goes!

I read the short author's note before getting started on the story, and it gave me such high hopes for this book. The author seemed to have a great fondness for the Amazon culture, and against all my normal expectations for a romance novel, I thought this was going to have strong feminist themes.

Well, that was stupid of me. WHY on EARTH would I expect such a thing? While the Amazon women were magnificent and independent almost to a fault, everything else about this book seemed designed to reinforce patriarchal notions. If the author did intend to write a feminist book, she certainly failed.

I don't even care that the Amazons were a bit too enthusiastic in their man-hating. Or that all the land men were sexist assholes. It was a bit over the top, sure, but it was clear they were supposed to be bad guys. My main gripe with the story was the hero, Dorian, who ruined this entire book.

So, he straight-up abducted Thalassa while she was swimming, because of some prophecy of his people saying she was the only one who could bear his children/heirs. He was seriously the worst. I don't even know where to start with him. He was supposed to be a nice, gentle sort of guy, but instead he was super disturbing because he came off as a "nice guy." You know, the ones who don't understand why women don't appreciate them for their superior brains and generosity. He condescended to Thalassa at every turn, expressed his arrogant opinion just as often, and used gentle force, but force nonetheless, to persuade her into doing what he wanted. All the while telling himself he wanted someone as spirited as her.



Although Dorian couldn't stop talking about how barbaric land people were and how much better the merpeople's society was, he really was no better than them. His and Thalassa's wedding night was a disturbing scene of forced seduction, complete with some sort of alcoholic beverage to make her more compliant.

"Leave me alone. I have no desire to look upon your face a moment longer."

"But sweet Lady," he said, and though his voice remained soft, there was a glint of anger—or even hurt—in his eyes. "What of my desires?"

FUCK YOU. Oh, he's so noble and has somehow managed to restrain himself until now, but he's definitely not taking no for an answer. And Thalassa tells him no in some form or other throughout the ENTIRE book. But Dorian doesn't listen because it's inconvenient to him, and he insists she no longer belongs to the people he abducted her from. No matter what he "lets" Thalassa do, he still manages to be right beside her, using his superior logic and reason to make her think she's an idiot (gaslighting). Literally everything that comes out of his mouth is condescending. I actually would have d Dorian better if he'd been an upfront asshole instead of a fake nice guy.

I will say the portrayal of Greek mythology and the Amazons was well-done. I was more interested in the chapters dealing with the Amazons and the Greeks than in the ones with Thalassa and Dorian. But I skimmed crazy in the last 100 pages because I just didn't care at that point. I'd wasted enough energy hoping the hero would somehow redeem himself and this would become a book I'd enjoy, but it never happened. Alas...

Karly, this could be your first DNF! *grabs popcorn*

Thanks to the Unapologetic Romance Readers for the buddy read!2016 buddy-reads captivity ...more20 s KaleidoscopicCasey337 164

I am very angry at this book and I don't even want to spend time reviewing it but I read it as a buddy read with the lovely folks over at Unapologetic Romance Readers They are super fantastic and have all kinds of interesting romance reading themed discussions, plus we play Two Truths and a Lie Tuesday *squee* so I feel I do owe it to the group to post some after reading thoughts. This book didn't just piss me off, I wanted to set it on fire. If written slightly differently though, this book could have been AMAZING because all of the elements needed for success were there.

I want the version of this book we all deserved.

I want the story Heather & Nenia mentioned where Dorian is still an ass, but he doesn't try to convince us he's a good guy.

I would have LOVED for this story to have less of the Thalassa & Dorian coupling and more of the Theseus & Aliope coupling as Karly mentioned.

We should have been given a version of this story that didn't try to present the Merpeople race as such an enlightened species. The whole book felt they were criticizing the lives of the Greeks and Amazonians.
"The land people do this... the land people do that... oh they just don't know any different because they are just land people"

You know what Merpersons... fuck off.

They kidnap human mates, change their DNA against their will, hold them prisoner, brainwash them, get them drunk and take advantage of them... They suck pretty hard too. And what the hell do they know anyway, they are Merpeople that don't even have fins for fucks sake

Two mermaid books in a row with douchcanoe males and NO fins is making me want to give up my search entirely but I will press on because science. In the meantime, I'm buying a harpoon gun for my trip to Florida this fall just to be safe.



You've been warned Merassholes.


Finished 05/03/16
Well, I did it.
I finished it despite wanting to rage quit. I'm giving it a 2 just because I enjoyed the ancient Amazonian and Greek cultures included in the storyline. Oh, and even though these mer-people didn't have fins at least they had gills so it's a step in the right direction.
Full Review to Come.

Pre-read review:
I'm a little scared because my last mermaid romance buddyread didn't go well....


... but really all this one has to do is actually have fins to be an improvement, so here we go.
I'll be diving into this little mystery on May 1 with the HR lovin ladies over at Unapologetic Romance Readers

now I just have to figure out where the hell I'm gonna get a copy of this beauty
because-mermaids book-club-it fantasy-pnr ...more30 s Laurie (barksbooks)1,815 727

This is one of the most fascinating and original books I've read in a long, long time. And even though it wasn't heavy on the romance and was more plot than character driven (my usual preference) I literally could not put it down.

Thalassa, born and raised as an Amazon warrior, is happy with her life. It isn't an easy one and her people are constantly at war with men but she is free. Fighting and protecting her sisters is what she lives for - until the day she is abducted by Dorian, King of the Merfolk, who sweeps her away to his world under the sea. She is furious and despises him immediately but tempers her rage when she realizes that her Goddess has ordained their match. Eventually this gentle God- man with super human powers begins to tear down her defenses with kindness, fairness and patience and allows her to accept her fate and his love. But she never forgets her beloved Amazon sisters. And when she overhears that their lives are in danger she and Dorian risk everything to enter the battle.

Filled with historical and fantasy details that I've never before read about, I learned so many amazing things about the strong but doomed ancient tribe of woman warriors known as the Amazons and the mythical Merfolk who created a peaceful life under the sea. Interspersed with the fantasy elements are rich historical details of daily life and survival in those brutal times where women were little more than slaves. There were several sub-plots and secondary characters that were all equally riveting and I couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This book is brutal and heartbreaking and filled with three-dimensional characters. It's not light and it's not funny and it's not my typical reading material but if you find it do not pass it by, it is a truly incredible book. An unforgettable one. romance2 s Diana6

I just finished reading this book this afternoon--and what an enjoyable read it's been! This is the story of the Amazons of legend. As I read and became enthralled with the characters and the action, I was also conscious of enormous sadness that the Amazon way of life ended three thousand years ago.

There is something fundamentally agreeable about a society of happy women who rejoice in their strength and courage and live in harmony with their sisters. I was enraptured by the fact that they eschewed marriage because they did not want to be slaves to men--which in almost every other society, women certainly were. These women were free to spend their time as they pleased, aside from the obligatory military duties. The young girls were trained from babyhood to ride, to test their strength, and acquire both weapons and the skills to use them effectively.

The Amazons treated their horses as beloved friends--so the horses did not have to be tied up at night. They stayed because they wanted to.

How sad to see such a society disappear! It was the last one in which women thought well of themselves. We are learning to think well of ourselves again, but this has been quite recent.

This book features the usual het love story, with the nice twist this time of the guy trying desperately to get HER, rather than the other way around, as usually happens. I'd recommend this book to any woman who s to think for herself and aspires to freedom of action.

Mell1,410 16

This book's cheesy cover does not do the novel justice. Its content is not the bodice ripper romance you might think.

Bryan has written one of the most original books I've ever written. This historical fiction fantasy hybrid incorporates Greek mythology, the Amazons, and other supernatural elements. The result is a page turner with complicated plots and deeply complex characters.

I'm not down with kidnapping as a way to fulfill Destiny. I could lose that plot device. I also wish this book was still in print. I read in high school but don't own a copy.historical-fiction supernatural-science-fiction-and-fa Edna311 20

Read this book years ago and still remember it. Love this book! I hope it comes out as ebook, that way I won't have to hunt for my copy of this book in storage. Choice1 reviewWant to read

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